lar, and many other Sacrifices were flain) to the Month of the last ripe Fruit, or Grapes. The Revelation of John opens the Mystery of this Appointment, where the Angel commands to reap the Earth, faying unto another Angel, put in thy sharp Sickle, and gather the CLUSTERS of the VINE of the EARTH; that is, of the whole

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the Blood of the * Lambs, which had fubdued into itself, the Blood of all the feventy Bullocks: For Chrift by the Virtue of his Blood, will fubdue all Things unto himself. This referved Kind of Prophecy will never be difregarded, but by the vain Learning of worldly Minds. St. John concludes the Triumph of Chrift's Blood in all, when he fhews the great Multitude which no Man can number, of all Nations, and Kindreds, and Peoples, and Tongues, standing before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in White Robes, and with PALMS in their Hands. It may be further obferved, that the Feast of Tabernacles, though fo very extraordinary for the Multitude of the Sacrifices, feems to be only thrice introduced in the New Teftament; the first Time is, at the Entrance of our Lord into Jerufalem, when the Hofannab was fung, which was appropriated to that Festival; the second is, at the great Day of Drawing of Water; and the third is, in the § Palms bore in their Hands, which were only used at

this

Numb. xxix. 13-38. + Rev. vii. 9. John § Rev. vii. 10.

vii. 37.

whole World, which has not been gathered before, either at the Passover, the Pentecoft, or at the Feast of Trumpets, all of them preceding that of Tabernacles: For (a) all the Families of the Earth must be blessed in the Seed of Abrakam, which is one, even Chrift, and not only a few, or a felect Part of Mankind.

Through these myftic Generations of Ifrael (who bear a spiritual Character under

(a) Gen. xii. 3.—xxviii. 14.

the

this Solemnity. All this feems defigned for the greater Knowledge of the Redemption, and of the Lord, fpoken of by the Prophets for the laft Days, and latter Day, as the Feast of Tabernacles was itself placed in the laft Days, or Month of the facred Year. Our bleffed Lord appears to refer to this Feaft, according to the spiritual and evangelical Completion it must one Time have, when he tells the Jews, for I fay unto you, || ye Shall not fee me henceforth, till ye fay, BLESSED is HE that COMETH in the NAME of the LORD: Which was the fame Bleffing pronounced over him on his entering Jerufalem ; and which is a Pledge and Pattern of the Voices of the Peoples, Nations, Kindreds, and Tongues, which cry Salvation unto our God, and unto the Lamb ; and which are diftinct from the hundred, forty and four thousand, whofe Glory and Happiness is greater and peculiar to themselves.

Matt. xxiii. 39..

*

the Figure) muft the perpetual Offering of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb pafs on, who is Meat and Drink for all Peoples and Tongues, until every one has eaten and drank to his Salvation. Through these Generations must the Lamb and his everlafting Fire burn Day and Night, till (b) all Things are fubdued unto him; till all are made to live again in him; till Death, the laft Enemy to be deftroyed, fhall be * fwallowed up in the (c) Victory of Life eternal.

The first Participation of the Blood of the Lamb, both under the Law, and un

(b) I. Cor. xv. 8. 14. Zech. ix. 11. -54, 55, 56, 57.

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Phil. iii. 21.

I. Tim. iv. 10.

der

(c) Hof. xiii. I. Cor. xv. 26

* Death in Scripture is always mentioned fimply, and without any Adjunct of spiritual and eternal, the Invention of Men, until John reveals the fecond Death, which will have Power over all, who obtain not Part in the first Refurrection; by which laft Expreffion we are taught another Mystery of the Kingdom of Chrift, that there will be a fecond Refurrection. The fecond Death is the Time and Place of future Punishments in the Lake of Fire, wherein great and small,

and

+ Rev. xx. 6.

der the Gospel, was at the Feast of Paffover, in the Month Abib, of first ripe, Fruits, and the Head of the facred Year: It flowed every Day under the Figure to the Feast of Tabernacles, the last Festival in the facred Year of feven Months. Beyond which great and concluding Solemnity, no Figure or Shadow appears in the Law, but the fabbatical Years, and the Jubilé, which bear a peculiar Meaning, as Types of feven Periods for redeeming all the Creation into the (d) Liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God; into the State of the (e) Sea like Crystal, mingled with Fire in all the minima Puncta, before the Throne and Face of God: In which great and bright Mirror, the Wonders of his infinite Intellect and Mind

(d) Rom. viii. 21.

(e) Rev. xv. 2.

are

and Death and Hell were caft, to be deftroyed in that Furnace of God's Wrath: For as Stripes will be $ few or many, according to the Words of our Lord, and according to the plain Character of Mankind, where Vices and Crimes appear in different Degrees of Malignity: Thefe Stripes muft regard Duration, whatever that be, and which is distinguished by Ages of Ages, in this Book of the beloved Prophet and Disciple.

Rev. xx. 12, 13, 14.

§ Luke xii. 47, 48.

are to be seen, in Heighth and Depth, in Length and Breadth of Vifions and Ideas, beyond any Conception that the Heart of Man can now form.

The feventy Bullocks are the Figures of the feventy Peoples which must be flain in their Day of the Gofpel-feaft of Tabernacles, and whofe Blood must be mingled with the Blood of (f) feven Times fourteen Lambs offered, to denote the multiplying of Chrift's Blood, when his holy Effence will eat up, and confume the fallen Blood of Man, as a devouring Fire, into Victory and Glory: For here again, will the Lamb appear as Ariel, the Lion of the Lord, to tear the Heart, and rend the Flesh and break the Bones of all the unregenerate and unredeemed in Pieces, that he may begin his other Work of building up, of healing and quickening what has been killed and deftroyed. This Tranfaction will be the (g) great Day of the Wrath of the Lamb, dreadful beyond Description, while he operates as a Fire of Holiness and Love, on impure and wicked Minds, fo as

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to

(f) Numbers xxix. 13—38.

(g) Rev. vi. 17.